A variety of electrical connectors have been used to make electrical connections between the circuits on different printed circuit boards. Typically, board to board connectors have both male and female portions or terminals to form an electrical connection between the two circuit boards. Male connector posts or pins typically are coupled to a first circuit board, and the male connector posts mate with female connector receptacles coupled to the second circuit board.
Board to board connector systems as described above often require two types of connectors to be maintained in inventory in order to afford coupling two printed circuit boards together. However, hermaphroditic connectors have been designed where two identical connectors can be mated to one another in a given orientation. Therefore, only one type of connector needs to be maintained in inventory.
Problems have been encountered with these types of electrical connector systems, because there is an increasing demand for high density connectors which also allow printed circuit boards to be placed closer together. A high density connector often requires the use of a stamped terminal to reduce the spacing between the terminals of a given connector. To allow printed circuit boards to be placed closer together in parallel planes, a very low profile board to board connector is required. These demands often result in relatively complicated connector designs.
The present invention is directed to providing a simple, efficient and inexpensive high density, low profile hermaphroditic board to board electrical connector which satisfies the needs of the connector industry as is not available in the prior art.